Masaari Empire
The Masaari were an ancient race who lived approximately up to 3 billion years ago. Their empire was known as the Eternal Empire, as their reign lasted for hundreds of millions of years. The Masaari were very wise due to their age, and their lives would have lasted over a thousand galactic years. The Masaari had a massive empire that spanned the whole known galaxy at the time. This expansion spanned across the empire's whole lifetime over two billion years, until the expansion stopped at around 3.5 billion years ago. At then the Masaari had control of most of the galaxy up until the Million Year War 3 billion years ago. The Masaari Empire was destroyed in the Million Year War by the Grox Empire, when the Grox started to perceive the Masaari as a threat to their existence. With the help of Xenolate, the renegade experiment of Steve, and the Ring of Fate he created, the Grox had the power to lie the Eternal Empire in ruins and spread out the Masaarian rule of the galaxy. The war only ended when Grobium, the Grox homeworld at the time, was mysteriously destroyed after Steve entered it, chasing after Xenolate who supposedly was in the planet at the time. There are many theories on what exactly happened, but the consensus is that both the Grox and the Masaari were too weakened to continue fighting at that point, resulting in a stalemate and quiet societal collapse. Religion The Masaari religion circled around three gods, one of which was Spode. The other two are Steve, who is supposedly living in the center of the galaxy today, and Sporix, the God of Balance and the world spirit of Solum. Sporix is the only one of the three whose existence has been confirmed, and he is still supposedly sleeping in his Vault, deep under Solum. The philosophy of Masaarism is balancing oneself with the nature around you and the whole galaxy. Everything that is around you is a part of your existence, so accepting that is a key part in achieving balance according to the Masaari. The Masaari were around the first to worship Spode and to spread his word across the galaxy. It is widely accepted by scholars that the reason why so many zealotry empires worship Spode is because of ancient Masaarian scrolls archaeologists had found from their home planets, which were likely former Masaari colonies from the Spodec era. This worship of Spode is likely also one of the reasons the Grox declared war against the Masaari in the Million Year War, seeing worship of life and an almighty god as a threat to them. However, some argue that the true reason the Grox hated Spode is because of Xenolate informing them about him, but there is no proof for their claims. History Dawn of the Empire The Masaari as a species come from the planet Masarin, located in the root of the Uranian wing according to the Liskus system of mapping, in a region called the Golden Zone. The same region holds several other habitable systems with high terrascores like Solum, Ikulan, Zenith and Unios as well, all very beautiful planets in their own right. Most of the habitable planets in the region were destroyed by the Grox during times like the Cleansing and the Million Year War, but at the start of the Masaaric Eon 5.5 billion years ago the Grox weren't very prominent or powerful enough to threaten the galaxy en masse, so life was hospitable enough for the Masaari to rise to the stars. Little is known about the beginnings of the Masaari Empire, but according to the records found by the Alvrok Department of Xenology and History, the home planet of the Masaari suffered from severe overpopulation issues around the time they reached space for the first time. The Masarin system had no other planets or moons in it, so sending colony ships to nearby stars was the only solution to the overpopulation of the planet. Thousands if not millions of generation and cryosleep ships were sent off from Masarin to colonize the galaxy, leaving around half a billion Masaari back home to take care of the birthplace of the empire so it could recover its natural resources over time. This period is today called the First Masaari Expansion Era. The First Expansion Era Across millions of years, the Masaari ships made their way across the galaxy and at first colonized the base of the Uranian wing. The empire expanded to the Terran and Maridian wings over time, but this took tens if not hundreds of millions of years to achieve. As more and more ships arrived at their destinations in different star systems, the Masaari of the different ships couldn't find a way to communicate that they'd had arrived. They could just send signals to Masarin in hopes that one day they could reunite with their brothers in the stars and back home. The signals telling the success of the colonization mission would not arrive to Masarin for thousands of years, but in the meantime scientific breakthroughs were made in the heart of the Masaari Empire. The invention of constantly-accelerating ships to near-lightspeed meant that the Masaari could reach the distant colony stars in a lifetime, but with severe time dilation for the passengers as per the laws of relativity, meaning that they would only see the distant descendants of the people they were attempting to visit. When the first signals arrived from the furthest colonies the Masaari had reached at that time around 5 billion years ago, they were responded to with great rejoice, beginning the Masaari Golden Era. The Golden Era With the Golden Era beginning, the Masaari discovered a new means of communication. While they could not yet send information faster than light, the constantly-accelerating ships meant that they could more reliably send the right information to the right colony by using certain "probe" ships that could broadcast information from closer while passing by different systems. This also meant the rise of certain "tower" colonies, which worked as the termini of the probe ships as they changed information with each other and then continued on their journey back to their other destination, be it Masarin or other tower planets. The Golden Era was otherwise rather uneventful time to the Masaari during the next billion years, since communication was still hard, and distances were vast even with the constantly-accelerating near-lightspeed ships. Still, the Masaari had time to grow their cultural lives and enjoyment, and vast amounts of currently-unknown works were created as books, plays and possibly different forms of entertainment. Many of these works have since then been lost, but there are some that have still survived to this day, yet their origins can't really be proven. The Second Expansion The Second Masaari Expansion Era was kickstarted when another breakthrough in space travel was made in Masarin. At this time the Masaari had expanded up to the locations of the modern-day Plutonia, Anther, Earth and Vortan-6, and met the last remaining remnants of the Willosaur Empire until they too died out. The Masaari of Masarin had discovered a new layer of existence on top of the real world, where lingered the other selves and shadows of the sentient beings. This new dimension was dubbed Fons (the Source) by the Masaari, but in the present day it is more known as the Metaphysical Realm. Using Fons, the Masaari found out that information there travelled much faster than the speed of light in the real world, and its malleability in spacetime meant that with special technology, it could be theoretically possible to travel faster than light by creating special "time bubbles" with Fons industria, source energy. This method cut the travel time across the galaxy from millenia to weeks, meaning that the Masaari could finally contact their brethren across the stars reliably. Up until this discovery, the colonies had worked rather independently from the central government of Masarin. When Masarin could suddenly contact them instantly through the Source, several systems didn't take it kindly. They took matters to their own hands and rebelled, fearing that Masarin would now forcefully control them instead of simply guiding, like what was the case before. This period is now today called the Masaari Civil War. The rebelling Masaari planets were quickly quelled though, since Masarin could now send troops and supplies near-instantaneously through new spaceships capable of "warpspeed", a new term at the time for FTL travel. These forces could then help calm the resistance and possibly kill any arbitrators of possible revolutions. As a consequence, Masaari government became centralized to Masarin and its region of nearby stars. Soon after the Masaari Civil War, expansion of the empire increased as the Masaari quickly colonized more and more planets, all the while reducing the colonization density at the heart of the empire in the Core. Across the next 500 million years, the Masaari colonized all of the galaxy up to the heights of modern-day Oscurhalo, Nighon, Anarrocko and Ankkis, and to the root of the Maridian wing. Meanwhile, there are some small skirmishes with the Grox at the core, but nothing really major happens with them yet. The Spodec Era 3.5 billion years ago the Masaari thought they had discovered everything the galaxy had to offer, since there was no response from any other possible empires from the ends of the galaxy when the Masaari sent explorers there. So, the Masaari naturally decided that they were the last large empire remaining in the galaxy, and thus renamed their empire as Imperia Infinitum, the Eternal Empire. After all, their huge empire had been in existence for at least two billion years at this point, so what would really harm it at this point? It all changed when the people of Masarin had a spiritual awakening after tampering with the deepest ends of the Source. They all felt a powerful presence coming from the center of the galaxy, which they named Spode. Prophets of the new-found Spode soon spread across the Empire, and the Masaari, with no purpose as of now, became enamoured with the possible existence of a god, a being so powerful that only it could have made the galaxy in its image. The Masaari converted en masse to Spodism, and religious fervour filled the empire. The existence of Spode is today disputed, but to the Masaari of that time he was as real as he could get. As such, the population and size of the Eternal Empire ballooned as the Masaari wanted to spread Spode's glorious word across the galaxy. In the next hundred million years, the Masaari Empire reached a size that spanned almost the entirety of the galaxy. More layers of Fons were also discovered, like Niflheim, where the spirits of the dead go after dying, the Nether-Realm, where the most malevolent spirits reincarnate as the feared Netherkin, and Destati, which is the Metaphysical Realm of the souls themselves. These new layers could be reached through special, mystical devices known as ''Mortals, ''which were powered by soul energy, another form of Fons industria permeating the Source. Travel through these new layers was even faster than through the Shadow Realm, the original form of Fons discovered by the Masaari, but masses of people could not be transferred through the Mortals without serious sacrifices of life, which the Masaari could not allow. The Sporid War Around 3.4 billion years ago, the growing empire needed even more resources than ever, and that included Fons industria. As such, some enthusiastic Masaari began to mine habitable T3 planets for the best possible profits for themselves. One of the planets they tried to mine was Solum, home to the Sporids. Sporids, which had no souls by Masaari standards, did not like their world's soul being siphoned away, so they attacked the miners and began spreading across the Golden Zone, beginning the Sporid War. All of the Masaari Empire had to combine their forces and to try evict the Sporids from their planets. The Sporid War ultimately took over a thousand years, since the Sporids were tougher to eliminate than thought. At the end of the war most of the invading Sporids were eradicated, but a few planets still remained. The source of the Sporid incursion was located to Solum, so a special team of diviners, botanists and scientists was sent there to investigate. The expedition ultimately led to the discovery of Sporix, the god of balance and nature, after which the Sporid War ended in a truce between Sporix and the Masaari. As a thank you for forming peace, the Masaari elevated Sporix into their pantheon of gods, equal to Spode in importance, and crafted a special vehicle to contain Sporix's spirit within for easier communication with him. This vehicle was warped by Sporix's power, and it became his current physical form. Steve and the MAXIS Project The Spodec Era continued in a relative peace for another 300 million years. The Empire continued to grow in strength, while some skirmishes with the Grox in the Core began to occur. Sporix and Spode were worshipped in equal numbers, and Solum became a popular if rather restricted site of pilgrimage for the Masaari. The first winds of change began to blow when Steve '''was born. Steve differed from the other Masaari at that time from being more rational and thinking than the rest of his kind at that time, who were tending to be arrogant and self-boisterous. He thought about life itself and if it ever existed like this. He also wondered if life could be grown from nothing through the power of the Source and Sporix, so he set to the planet Solum to meet with Sporix. By listening to Sporix, Steve learned more about the meaning of life itself, and what the answer to all of it was: 42. Using Sporix's knowledge, Steve created '''The Staff of Life, after two failed attempts which became the Staves of Evolution and Birth respectively. The first being created with the Staff of Life was Xenolate, a simple creature born of a single gene shared in Masaari and Willosaur DNA. Through Xenolate's success, Steve later engineered different special cells in a project soon called MAXIS. Later, Steve tried to breed Xeno with a female cloned version of him called Xena. However, Xena died soon after mating with Xeno due to genetic complications and incompatibilites, so Steve took her from Xeno and buried her to Sporix's Vault. Xeno was confused as of why this happened, as he had no concept of death as of before. He began to show signs of slight contempt to his creator for taking his loved one away. On a certain fateful day 3.1 billion years ago, Steve wanted to test the three staves he made with Xeno, so he went to his chambers to find him. As Steve could only carry two staves at once, he left the Staff of Life alone. Xeno managed to find it, and he became sentient from touching it, growing himself hands as he ascended. Xeno then realized why he was created, and what his purpose was, so he lashed out against Steve with the Staff. However, as Steve retaliated, Xeno, becoming even more powerful from getting in contact with the Staff of Life, teleported away and went missing for 99 million years. The MAXIS Project was terminated soon after, but not before Steve created Ylate and Zyrgah to chase after Xeno. The Million Year War (Million Year War and beyond to be added once Angery Italy Man finishes his map.) Fall The reason why the Masaari fell is unknown, but according to the archeological finds that the Melorsia Alliance has found, it seems that they went to a long war with the Grox. Another theory for why they were destroyed is that they created an immortal being who despised the gods and wanted them destroyed. The being held dark powers and used them against the Masaari, bringing in their downfall. This being, who is only known as the Recusant, is shaped like an X according to the legends surrounding it. Present day and Legacy Up until in the recent 100 years the Masaari were still around, but only in very scarce numbers. The last sighting of a Masaari was in a small planet housing modest beings, where lived Mr. Goodwill. Mr. Goodwill was the last Masaari, and he spent last of his years uplifting beings with a staff not too unsimilar to the legendary Staff of Life. Legends tell that he died fighting the Grox up until his very last breath, protecting the Staff with his life. Legacy The legacy of the Masaari still lives on in the ruins they left behind. They have stood the test of time and will likely still stay far into the future. The Staves of Power they left behind are some of the galaxy's most valuable artifacts, and while they're missing, the galaxy still holds some of their power in it. Nobody knows of a small planet with an eye-shaped ocean, where one of the Lifely Hallows still resides to this day...Category:Dead Empires